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Betty Boop Bouncing from Role to Role
Betty Boop, the cartoon cutie of the 30s, with the iconic garter, is alive and well. Her real name is Mae Questel and there's still a Betty Boop sparkle in her voice. That she's amptly curved and slightly graying these days doesn't appear to bother Miss Questel a "Boop-a-Doop" spitcurl's worth. As Aunt Bluebell, the television commercial lady who hawks paper towels, Miss Questel gets a kick out of being recognized b her paper towel fans. "They wave at me. Even in the middle of traffic they want to know 'Is it really heavier?' Miss Questel hands it right back, with a wave and a smile. "Weigh it for yourself, honey!" the movie and stage comedienne recalls. Even in her vaudeville days she's never needed a microphone to bounce her voice around New York's Palace theater. The many lives of Mae Questel, besides animated Queen La Boop and saucy Aunt Bluebell, include the decade of ad-libbing for Popeye's waterspout-skinny girlfriend Olive Oyl. "Olive Oyl reminded me of actress ZaSu Putts, so I gave her the same whining, high-pitched tones," Miss Questel recalls. Her's was also Swee'Pea, the baby in "Popeye," and Betty Boop's cuddly dog Pudgy. Miss Questel admits that her everything was raining dollars. On the original RCA Victor Betty Boop label Miss Questel was pouting to the music "Don't Take My Boop-Oop-a-Doop Away." Mountains of Betty Boop fan mail poured into Paramount and Boopmania moved into the marketplace. There were Betty Boop bathing suits, cigarette cases, children's Betty Boop pajamas, which retailed at $1 a pair, Betty Boop pocketbooks, nail polish and jewelry. Even a 5-cent Betty Boop candy bar. Artist Grim Natwick had no idea what he was starting when he drew the first Betty Boop cartoon, taking the spit curls from chubby singer Helen Kane, who was then working for Paramount. At first Natwick came up with a pair of shapely human legs for his bouncy little dog. It was only later when the dog's long ears evolved into a pair of fetching earrings that little girl Boop was born. The year 1932 marked one of her first big hits, "Minnie the Moocher" in which La Boop cavorted as a princess. Several women had a go at the voice-over in the beginning, but brunette, 5-foot-2 Miss Questel "I never walked, I bounced," was quickly chosen by Max Fleischer as the permanent "Boop Queen." She stayed with it up until 1938. Come 1934 and Betty Boop was hauled into court. Newspaper reporters and the nation awaited the verdict. A suit brought by singer Helen Kane asked $250,000 from Max Fleischer, the Fleischer Studios and Paramount Pictures and charged that the "Boop" had climbed to marquee fame by stealing Miss Kane's vocal style. Fleischer trotted Miss Questel and the four girls, who first did the Boop cartoons, into court. Newspapers ate up the testimony that "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" actually began as "Ba-Da-In-De-Do," then slipped into "Do-Do-De-O-Do" before finally blossoming into "Boop-Oop-a-Doop." Fleischer and Betty Boop won the case. When Hayes Office censors in the 30s decided that Betty Boop's single black garter was suggestive, it was hidden under longer dresses. Only to be deluged with a fan mail reading "Put back Betty's garter!" The Hayes Office knuckled under to public pressure. Meanwhile Decca sold 2 million records featuring the Questel Betty Boop voice doing Shirley Temple's hit, "On the Good Ship Lollipop," and on the back a recitation called "I've Got a Pain in My Sawdust." Miss Questel also knocked out 70 recordings for Decca plus "a bunch of Olive Oyl ones" for Columbia. In 1934 a syndicated Betty Boop comic strip debuted. But she soon found her personality splitting in every direction. Little Audrey, the Wicked Witch in the "Land of Oz," even the Dragon Lady on "Terry and the Pirates." "I also did all the voices on CBS' Saturday morning show, 'Winky Dink, like Dustry Dan and Mike McBean" she adds. But none ever kicked up quite the same stir as La Boop. Miss Questel remembers that in 1933 Popeye made his first appearance in a Betty Boop cartoon titled "Popeye the Sailor," and captured the imagination of the entire country by squeezing a ship's mast into clothespins. Betty Boop was adding up to $500 a week for Mae Questel. "That was a lot of money in the 30s," she recalls, "and I didn't have taxes to pay." She signed a yearly contract with Fleischer "so it didn't matter" how many, or how few, cartoons she turned out. Miss Questel pocketed a lump sum of $75,000 for "the later Popeye ones, those that are now being shown on television." There were "big differences" in making the early Boops and Popeyes, she explains. "When we first started there was a bouncing ball right there on the side of the cartoon and we'd follow the ball with our words or lyrics. It took a week to make one cartoon ad we had to rehearse for three days." By the time the final ones were turned out, she says, the voice-over was done first and the "animation was added to fit." That way she could do as many as 10 cartoons in one day. She also turned out a full length feature film with Nancy Caroll and Richard Arlen plus a handful of one-reelers with Rudy Vallée. Among the Questel collection of Betty Boop memories there's one she will never forget, the day Maurice Chevalier visited Paramount. He wanted to meet her and see a Betty Boop cartoon. She and the famed Frenchman, plus a handful of Paramount brass, were ushered into the screening room and she was given the place of honor next to Chevalier. "Sitting in the dark I suddenly felt his arm around my neck. I was 20 years old at that time and I was too frozen to say a word." When the lights went on Chevalier said, "That was delightful. I would love to take you out to dinner." He was appearing in a show at the time and wanted Mae to see it. "I told him I would be delighted to go to dinner," Miss Questel says, but added, "he didn't need to pick me up because my husband would do that" Miss Questel and her husband enjoyed Chevalier's show. The dinner never came off. A few years ago Miss Questel appeared on Johnny Carson's show to plus the movie "Funny Girl," in which she played Mrs. Strakosh, and brought down the house when Carson, who was intrigued that she did animals in early cartoons, asked her, "OK-how would you do a rhinoceros?" "Male or female?" Miss Questel smiled sweetly. Probably the only compliment that ever came close to going to her head was from director William Wyler on the "Funny Girl" set. However, the very next day, she recalls, "he had me do a scene over 18 times." Category:News Category:Newspapers Category:1978